man, you really are starting to sound like a 'J' witness with your talks of end times
Thanks for explaining your thoughts/ideas about this. Sometimes I think though, that it would have been allot easier for god just to have written the bible completely himself, materializing it out of thin air. There are so many different ways to understand the bible, too many variables, it seems by creating a book for people to follow and worship it has arguably created more problems than solutions. All of these religions based on the one source, but many contradict and disagree with one another to such a degree that it causes deaths, wars. So much pain... I want to believe in the bible, but find it difficult to understand why a omnipotent creator could be so short sighted. Of course, we can argue that it is man that has caused the confusion and understood the source material wrong, but you wouldn't teach your kid something that you knew they would not understand, and HE knows, because he is omnipotent right? He knew before he even wrote it that many of us would understand it completely wrong, get confused as to who and what some of the passages were referring to (see the above passage you quoted regarding Muhammed - not that you are wrong, just simply that at least the muslims would understand the passage differently) people would get killed and fight, all fighting and getting killed over the same God! Just because they understood some details wrong. All these different religions, looking over and seeing evil in the eyes of their neighbors - just because they believe in something different. Muslims are not evil, I don't believe that evil really exists, not in the way that we perceive it. Because if there is a Satan, this would mean that our theist god would have had to create him, that he is more powerful than him and could take him out at any point (because he is omnipotent , however much power satan has cannot even start to be measured up against the one true god) . So in essence, this would mean that this is all some kind of cosmic lesson he is trying to teach us by creating the boogeyman, a kind of ultimate parental threat of punishment. ...
Urgh, thinking too much again... no, I like the bible, at it's source I believe that there is something there - but it scares me that people take it so literally - only because it creates so many hostile situations and ultimately death. I think a book was the wrong way to go, yeah I guess I am being blasphemous now, but seriously - he could of thought of a better way to convey his message more clearly without it causing so much suffering, he is omnipotent after all.
sorry for the rant, I do totally respect your views though, and I believe that everybody is entitled to think and believe in precisely what they want. Also, there cannot be anybody better as a role model than JC - that dude had it right
